Finding Neff funeral home obituaries used to be a straightforward task for anyone living in the Howard or Millheim areas of Pennsylvania. You’d check the local paper or the funeral home’s website, and there it was. But honestly, if you’ve tried to look one up recently, you might have noticed things have gotten a bit messy. Names have changed. Owners have moved. Websites have merged.
It’s not just you. The "Neff" name has been a staple in Centre County for over a century, but the actual business behind the name has undergone some major shifts that make finding a specific obituary feel like a digital scavenger hunt.
The Howard vs. Millheim Split
To understand where to look, you first have to know which "Neff" you’re talking about. Historically, the Neff family operated in two main locations: Howard and Millheim. For a long time, these were family-run pillars of the community.
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In Howard, the business was known for decades as the W. Robert Neff Funeral Home. Robert "Bob" Neff was a local legend—not just a funeral director, but the Centre County Coroner for 32 years. When he retired in 1996, the Howard location was sold to Curtis Kader, becoming the Kader-Neff Funeral Home.
Wait, it gets more complicated.
In 2023, the Howard facility changed hands again. Garrett Singer took over, briefly renaming it Singer-Kader-Neff. Then, following some legal issues involving previous ownership and a subsequent acquisition, the Howard location effectively became part of the Wetzler Funeral Service family.
So, if you are looking for Neff funeral home obituaries for someone who passed away in Howard recently, you actually need to check the Wetzler Funeral Home website or their dedicated Howard portal. The "Neff" name is still on the sign for heritage reasons, but the digital records have moved.
Where the Millheim Neffs Stand
Now, if you’re looking for someone in the Penns Valley area, you’re likely looking for the Steven R. Neff Funeral Home in Millheim. This branch stayed in the family much longer. Steven Neff, the fifth generation of the family, has been running this location since 1986.
Interestingly, Steven is actually the son of W. Robert Neff from the Howard branch.
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For Millheim obituaries, the records are much more centralized. You can usually find them directly on the Steven R. Neff Funeral Home official website. They maintain a fairly robust archive that dates back several years.
Why Recent Obituaries Are Harder to Track
You've probably noticed that sometimes an obituary appears on a site like Legacy.com or Tribute Archive, but not on the funeral home's own page. This happens because of how syndication works.
Funeral directors often push obituaries to several platforms at once. Sometimes a "tribute wall" is set up on a third-party site before the main website is updated. If you can't find a recent record:
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- Check the local newspapers: The Centre Daily Times or the Lock Haven Express often carry the full text.
- Search by the director's name: Instead of searching for "Neff," try searching for "Garrett Singer Howard PA" or "Wetzler Funeral Howard."
- Social Media: Many small-town funeral homes now post immediate death notices on Facebook hours or days before the formal obituary is finalized.
What’s Actually in a Neff Obituary?
The Neff family and their successors have always leaned into a very traditional, detailed style of storytelling. These aren't just "born on X, died on Y" listings. They usually follow a specific flow:
- The Hook: A mention of the person's character or a defining life event.
- The Lineage: Parents, siblings, and where they grew up (often mentioning specific farms or old schoolhouses in Howard or Millheim).
- The Service Record: Since many in this area served, you'll see a lot of detail regarding military rank and honors.
- Community Ties: Memberships in the Howard Area Lions Club or local fire companies are common staples.
Practical Steps for Researchers and Families
If you are trying to track down a record from the 1950s or 60s, don't expect to find it on a modern funeral home website. Most digital archives for small-town homes only go back to about 2005 or 2010.
For anything older, your best bet is the Pennsylvania State Archives or the local Howard and Millheim genealogical societies. The Neff family was meticulous with records, but many of those physical ledgers are now in private or historical society hands.
If you are a family member tasked with writing an obituary for a service at one of these locations today, remember that the "Neff legacy" is about community connection. They generally encourage including specific details about the person's impact on the local area—mentioning the specific church or the Grange Fair, for instance.
Actionable Next Steps:
- For Howard area deaths (post-2024): Visit the Wetzler Funeral Service website directly.
- For Millheim/Penns Valley deaths: Use the Steven R. Neff Funeral Home search tool.
- For historical research: Contact the Centre County Library and Historical Museum in Bellefonte; they hold the microfilm for the papers where these obituaries were originally printed.
- Verification: If you find conflicting dates on third-party sites, always defer to the funeral home's direct site or the official death certificate, as aggregators often have OCR (optical character recognition) errors.